January Honey

Faster than the trilogy of the Lord Of The Rings, and slower than summer lovers would wish it to be, January is gone. Oh, the relativity of time.

These are a new kind of playlists we are starting here in our pink planet. Weekly and monthly compilations of the honey we are getting in our inbox. Music you should listen to if you want to keep your soul in the right side of the force.

January got us most of the time under our covers eating chocolates and off line, so this first edition goes for all January. We selected four releases as the coolest of the month: Downstate, CAssette, Giraffage, and Coma. And the special honey star of January goes with love from Layabozi to Kompakt Records who is starting to celebrate what will be their twenty years anniversary on March. And they have flood our inbox with new releases, compilations, remixes, and all kinds of new music, making it hard to go to sleep with all the new music we have to listen and enjoy. Happy 2013 to Kompakt. And here we go with our list.

How To Dress Well – “& It Was U” (Elite Gymnastics Remix) [Domino Records]

Let’s start with one of the bands that’s coming to JUE Festival. Chicago based artist Tom Krell, best known as How To Dress Well, shared this remix “& It Was U”, a song of his latest record Total Loss, produced by Elite Gymnastics from Minneapolis. A bubbling disco tune to bounce at.

Mo Kolours – “Bomptious” [One-Handed Music]

This track was released a couple of months ago, no we are not cheating, because it was sent to us just last week. Mo Kolours is an English/Mauritian pop-experimental artist. Those Mauritius lands must have some magic dust in their soil making them so musically cool. Well, Mo Kolours seems to be doing pretty well with his debut records, he got a lot attention already, it’s been highlighted by Gilles Peterson, FACT, The Independent, and well, us!, so keep an eye on this sweet gogot’s music. Gogot is not a nice word in Mauritian creole, but it sounds pretty cool to me. Check his beats.

Giraffage – “Thinking About You” [Alpha Pup Records]

This one should have a heart on the side. We don’t have those emoticons here. And we won’t. But if we would, it would get one. I got it, played it, and fell for it, all in one move. This … what? fag Giraffe?! … no, I don’t think so… this guy is actually Charlie Yin from San Francisco, the new gem of Alpha Pup Records. The 21 years old is kicking ass around his neighborhood, and it’s totally understandable, when you listen to the sick twisted beats he is producing. You listen to one, and then you want more, it’s pretty sticky honey. Luckily he has a link to his first release on his Soundcloud page, and you can get it for whatever money you want to give him. I won’t give you the link, don’t be a lazy giraffe, go look it by yourself, I still have to finish this list.

“Thinking about you” is the single from his forthcoming mixtape “Needs” to be released on February 12th. The tune, I told you, is sticky and pushes the boundaries of tranquility with sounds that awake your basic needs at a rhythm that disconcerts the logic of common sense. Interesting stuff.

Downstate – ” W S B” [Urban Waves Records]

This is another of the four stars of our January. Downstate has been kicking ass producing music like there’s nothing else to do in life. And, yes, we love that. We also love how amazing he is getting at this, his productions are becoming a mention of pride for Shanghai. “W S B” is the eight track of his latest record The Drip Taper released under Urban Waves, which is available also on cassette format. Nostalgia!

“W S B” is a short story in beats, Downstate is getting good at telling stories like this, a trip around dark and light fiction jungles, a space with no solid ground, but too tempting to not dive in. You got to fly it.

CAssette – “Little Boat To China” [Independent]

The second star of our list, because we love to show off productions made in China. We told you about this one yesterday, no need to talk more about it, but just to listen to it again.

Blue Hawaii – “Try To Be” [Kompakt, Arbutus]

This is a duo from Montreal Canada. And this the first single of their new album Untogether to be release in March of 2013. We will tell you more about the album soon, for now let me say, I got it and it sounds sweet as clouds and wind and feathers. Blue Hawaii became known with their first EP Blooming Summer, released in 2010. Time after the release the duo took different ways, Ra went on tour with her other band Braids, and Ag moved to Europe and got deeper into dance music and the geeky side of music. They met again almost a year ago, and the result of their reunion is this new work Untogether. “Try To Be” is a blend of folk and electronic sounds, a song that floats in between spaces, confusion and discovering, and you know, the mysteries of life.

Coma – “Hooray” [Kompakt]

This is the third star of January. Maybe we will have to get emoticons with shapes. To make the reading of these lists easier for our spoiled readers. We like spoiled people, yes we do.

Coma is Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat, the duo based in Cologne is the new local promise from those lands. Kompakt has high expectations on their debut album In Technicolor, to be release in April this year. And I buy the high expectations of Kompakt, “Hooray” sounds promising indeed, fun, creative, interesting, strange, and cool. All the right elements to think COMA could score a goal. See by yourself.

Kurt Von Stetten – “First Daughter” [Independent, Planetary]

Okay let’s do some guitars. Kurt Von Stetten, I never heard of him before, if you did maybe you are from Boston then. This is the first single of his new album Androlafi, which means witches, so a reason to like the tune. Kurt Von Stetten is a fan of Sebadoh, that’s the band that Boys Climbing Ropes admires, second reason to listen to this tune. And then the tune itself is easy to head bang at, noisy, and easy to follow. Go and play some invisible guitar now.

Everyday Animals – “Two Minus One” [Independent, Planetary]

Do you know how hard is to make pop music? I mean decent pop music, not slutty Lady Gaga like pop. I think the ability to produce great pop is a rare talent. Maybe this is not the right way to show you this tune, but well, I thought about this because I think they are on the way to get it. This tune has a thing, a sound to silly honesty, music for good guys. (Not totally my kind of guy, but hell, I’m trying!) … Anyway, “Two Minus One” has a summer vibe that makes it much enjoyable in these cold days.

MHP released this track last year on his fantastic The Chinese Connection, we told you about it then. DJ Doggy remix it, and it sounds like whiskey and cherries. Yam!

Phillip Gorbachev – “Hero Of Tomorrow” [Kompakt, Cómeme]

This is the fifth track of the EP Hero Of Tomorrow, released on January 14th by Cómeme and Kompakt. A conceptual EP about Rony Douglas and the story of his death. Phillip Gorbachev is from Russia, and his music is at least disturbing, I’d say. Not really indicated for a romantic night, or a nap, but in case the romantic night turns into a gory encounter it might be useful to have it near by… yeah those things can happen. “Hero Of Tomorrow” is tagged as techno punk, I think Shanghai Ultra could dig this one.

Itsogoo – “厦门Kid ft.赵啊B” [Independent]

This one is a quickie, a beat by Itsogoo, something to refresh. Itsogoo continues his production of cool beats in Beijing.

Chekov – “Harakiri” [Independent]

Somehow Itsogoo and Chekov are neighbors, and it’s cool like that. “Harakiri”, freshly released on mid January, evolves full of cool and confidence bringing new sounds to its playground. It walks with a funky groove, and a naughty swing. Check it out.

Spitzer – “Clunker” feat. Fav (Alejandro Paz Remix) [InFine]

The last one is a fun track, the progression of a loop can catch you and never let you go, it happens to all of us. Remixed by Chilean producer Alejandro Paz “Clunker” was originally released on Spitzer’s latest album The Call.

Mache is a hippie witch that was born under Beltane's full moon. She enjoys talking to ghosts and interdimensional beings, and cooking for her friends and beasts. She has Chilean wine in her veins instead of blood,and at the moment she belongs to China.